Blimp mid-air collision

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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3Green
battle-blimp-01-0812-lgn.jpg


Just kidding... this is the Army's new Battle Blimp"

For years, aeronautical dreamers have extolled the promise of hybrid airships—blimp-like aircraft that rely on a combination of buoyant gases and dynamic lift to fly. Such a craft, they say, could achieve the efficiency of a lighter-than-air vehicle and the controllability of a conventional airplane—but repeated attempts to fulfill this vision have so far come to naught.

Earlier this month, however, Northrop Grumman achieved the first flight of what may well prove to be the first operationally successful hybrid airship. The Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, or LEMV, is a 300-foot-long triple-hulled blimp scheduled to be deployed to southwestern Asia next year, where it will loiter at 20,000 feet for up to three weeks at a time, providing a round-the-clock surveillance-coverage capability equivalent to that of 25 fixed-wing drones. Northrop Grumman provided PM these exclusive images of the blimp during its initial testing phase in Lakehurst, N.J.

The LEMVtook off for the first time in the late afternoon of August 8 and flew for 90 minutes. Although the craft is designed to operate autonomously under the guidance of its own control system, two Northrop Grumman employees occupied it during the flight test.
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I just can't help thinking it looks like an easy target in the days of radar guided AAA and SAMs.
 
Oh, I thought this was going to be a thread about Kimberly at Reno!:rofl:

That airship does look rather ungainly!
 
Attack of the flying sausage links.
 
I thought the strategy was that it could be hit, but not brought down. Lots of discrete internal cells would make that thing a tough SOB, even if you hit it 1000 times.
 
MAKG1 said:
I thought the strategy was that it could be hit, but not brought down. Lots of discrete internal cells would make that thing a tough SOB, even if you hit it 1000 times.
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It would be hard to miss if you aimed for it, that thing looks huge.
 
You could hit it with a crossbow and reel it in. :rolleyes2:

I hate to think where the vents for the gas bags are located. :hairraise:

Cheers
 
MAKG1 said:
I thought the strategy was that it could be hit, but not brought down. Lots of discrete internal cells would make that thing a tough SOB, even if you hit it 1000 times.
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Me thinks one rocket into the cab would kind of render it useless.
 
In a follow up story, photos of the crew were released....

thunderbirds_Childhood-s400x300-110195-5801.jpg
 
MAKG1 said:
Sure, but what would you hit it with? A SAM or air-to-air missile would just punch through it and do next to nothing. Anything else is likely to have range problems.
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Presumably radar guided missiles are proximity fused and would blow a giant hole in the skin plus dozens of small holes from the frags?
 
I'd love to target that!...I'd use 20mm HEI and just rake it in half.:idea:
 
MAKG1 said:
I thought the strategy was that it could be hit, but not brought down. Lots of discrete internal cells would make that thing a tough SOB, even if you hit it 1000 times.
Click to expand...

Don't need a bunch of cells. Heck, bullet holes in a conventional blimp take days to notice. What people don't understand about airships is how absolutely low the pressure is in airships. We operate between 1 and 2 inches of water column. Very, very, low pressure.
 
Biggest threat to a blimp mission would be winds.
 
As I understand it, these would be used in situations similar to what we have in Afghanistan (zero air threat, zero SAM's). They would take on the types of missions currently done by aerostats, possibly some cargo stuff. High altitude to mitigate winds on station. Crew optional.
 
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